Ministers say Blair must name day

Senior cabinet ministers want the prime minister to rescue his flailing government by agreeing a public date on which he will hand power to the chancellor. The group includes normally loyal cabinet ministers who fear it is the only way to stabilise the government in the wake of more damaging revelations at the weekend threatening the careers of both the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and the home secretary, Charles Clarke.

Mr Blair is considering a reshuffle as early as a week today, just long enough to give him time to reflect on what is expected to be terrible local election results for the Labour party on Thursday.

Some backbenchers are organising to mount a challenge, and set a new political direction for the party. Leftwing MPs have been planning for months to put up a "stalking horse" challenger to Mr Blair if he does not agree to go by the middle of next year. The move comes after a weekend of lurid and damaging headlines on Mr Prescott's affair with his diary secretary, Tracey Temple, dominating the Sunday newspapers.

He is facing an internal Whitehall inquiry after the former Tory whip Derek Conway filed a complaint demanding an investigation into Ms Temple's use of government cars to travel to and from trysts with Mr Prescott. The use of the cars, revealed in a diary by the ex-secretary published in the Mail on Sunday, could be seen as abuse of ministerial perks.

But the main damage to Mr Prescott is the tawdry description of his affair with his ex-secretary, including sex in his office, his flat and at a hotel. Mr Prescott's friends have denied the hotel incident and he is said to be determined not to resign.

Mr Clarke's position appears to be more precarious. In an interview, Mr Blair refused to guarantee that the home secretary would not lose his job over the mistaken release of foreign prisoners. The prime minister added that there were "no excuses" for the error. He told the News of the World that Mr Clarke's survival "depends on what happens" - specifically whether any of the released prisoners later committed serious offences.

Mr Clarke was put under fresh pressure yesterday when it became clear that the Home Office was wrong when it said that 1,023 foreign prisoners had been released. In fact, a number of them are still in jail.

The discrepancy came to light when David Davis, the shadow home secretary, questioned three contradictory sets of figures for the most serious offenders said to be on the loose, which had mysteriously fallen from 105 to 73 in four days. Yesterday the Home Office refused to reveal how many of the wrongly released foreign criminals were still at large.

Opinion polls at the weekend reinforced the sense of panic gripping Labour ahead of Thursday's local elections. A YouGov survey for the Sunday Times put support for the party down three points to 32% - two points behind the Tories, with the Liberal Democrats on 18%. An ICM poll for the Sunday Express put Labour two behind, at 27% to 29%, and the Lib Dems on 22. In the Mail on Sunday, a BPIX survey of those certain to vote in the local elections gave the Tories a nine point lead by 35% to 26%.